Printers are common peripheral devices attached to computers. A printer allows a computer user to make a hard copy of documents that are created in a variety of applications and programs on a computer. To function properly, a channel of communication is established (e.g., via a network connection) between the printer and the computer to enable the printer to receive commands and information from the host computer.
Once a connection is established between a workstation and the printer, printing software is implemented at a print server to manage a print job from order entry and management through the complete printing process. The printing software may simultaneously manage in excess of thousands of print jobs that have been spooled (or queued) for production. Each of these print jobs may include various documents that include unused areas (or white spaces) at which content may be placed, but are left blank as a result of the defined print job data.
In many print applications, the existence of such magnitudes of white space is wasteful. For example, a print job performed by a bank that produces thousands of statements to be mailed to customers may result in hundreds of pages worth of white space. Thus, the bank is unable to maximize the efficiency of print jobs by utilizing unused space on print pages. Since the cost of producing the statements has already been expended at the time of production, the bank could take full advantage of such an investment by having an opportunity to utilize the white space to place content (e.g., advertisements, offers, etc.) for which a consumer may have interest.
Accordingly, a mechanism to identify and utilize white spaces in print jobs is desired.